About African Cuisine

Let us take a moment to talk about African cuisine. I have received emails from many, especially from school aged children asking about African cuisine. This page is to give an overveiw of what to expect from the entire site.

With a population of about 1.2 billion inhabitants, Africa makes up nearly a quarter of the earth's population. It is also said to be the cradle of civilization hence, I could safely say the cradle of cooking as well. Not much is known about the cuisine from this continent.

Okra soup

Diced vegetables

Waakye(Ghanian rice and beans meal)

Jollof rice

Like most other parts of the world people eat what is readily available. Therefore, this post is centered around a list of ingredients easily found within the continent. 

Most food from Africa are usully whole foods devoid of excessive processing and artificial preservatives.

Food like cassava, yam, cocoyam, chickpeass, teff flour, rice, beans, maize, sorghum, groundnut, coconut, plantain, matoke, millet, melons are common staples.

Sea foods, poultry, beef, goat meat, bush meat, palm oil, potatoes, lentil, beans, cowpeas, vegetables, vegetable oils, and a wide selection of tantalizing herbs and spices are commonly used in cooking.

Yam Porridge

As you would soon notice from the recipes you would be introduced to on this site, many Africans outside of Africa have retained a huge chunk of the traditional African cooking styles. Many of these cuisines in America or the Caribbean have not changed a lot they are usually similar to the cuisines known for centuries in Africa.

The good news is that many of the food traditionally African are now known and available to the rest of the world as a result of migration and great transport network in many parts of the world.

You may not find certain food in your local grocery shop but there are loads ethnic food shop in most big cities in nearly all parts of the world. So you can always get these ingredients or close substitutes.

Shashuku and rice

Egyptian Lentil soup

About African Cuisine at a glance

The recipes would come from all over Africa as well as Central African. Sometimes individual countries would be featured and where similar recipe is found in other countries it would be mentioned and also feature where possible. The various benefits of the different ingredients would be highlighted in another post. Please visit often for updates and new recipes. Please subscribe to my newsletter below.

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